In a new Kirk ad, a mother complains about how, “our daughter was a freshman when I opened up the envelope (from the treasurer) and found that they’d lost more than half of our college savings.”
Problem is, the fund involved, known as Core Plus, only lost 38%, and half of that was recouped in a lawsuit. I’m not always great at math, but 19% or so strikes me as somewhat short of half.
Giannoulias said he has been “absolutely, unequivocally consistent in all my statements for the last four years.
“I left day-to-day operations in 2005, and I fully left the bank about April 2006,” he said.
“Absolutely, unequivocally consistent”? Um, didn’t he tell the Tribune last week that he left the bank in May of 2006, not April, as he just told the SJ-R?
James Wright, who recently was forced out as the state’s executive inspector general, has a new job as the campaign manager for mayoral hopeful Gery Chico, the candidate told the Chicago News Cooperative on Wednesday. […]
Chico said he is not concerned that Wright has never run a campaign.
And Chico expects us to take him seriously? Dick Durbin is also clueless…
Chico was an “outstanding candidate” in the 2004 US Senate primary? Is Durbin nuts? Chico got barely over 5 percent of the Cook County vote that year and four percent statewide. Sheesh.
Houle believes that in Chicago and across the country, voters are sick of being pandered to and want someone who will tell them in blunt terms about problems and real solutions.
Rahm Emanuel is only “blunt” behind closed doors. His campaign won’t be anything like his private personality.
It’s not always possible to predict the positions of all the players in the game of politics in Illinois.
A case in point came to me in the form of a copy of an e-mail invitation from Mark Denzler, vice president and chief operating officer of the Illinois Manufacturers’ Association, to folks who were being encouraged to attend two fundraisers — one for Democratic House Speaker Madigan of Chicago, and the other for Senate Republican Leader Christine Radogno of Lemont. […]
When we spoke recently, Denzler said House GOP Leader Cross hadn’t asked for a fundraiser this year
Look, I know Cross has no love for the IMA, but maybe he could at least ask them to hold a fundraiser? Put them on the spot, maybe?
[Democratic treasurer nominee Robin Kelly] linked two votes by [GOP treasurer nominee Dan Rutherford] —in 1995 and 1997 against lowering the DUI standard to .08 from .10—to more than $70,000 in campaign contributions he’s received since then from beer distributors and other liquor interests.
“Rutherford sold out safe roads for campaign cash,” blared a Kelly press release.
Mr. Rutherford responds that Ms. Kelly has to be “desperate” to drag up 15-year-old legislative votes. He opposes and still opposes .08 and the state’s mandatory seat-belt law, Mr. Rutherford says, but money has nothing to do with it.
Rasmussen cannot justify its failure to name the “some other candidate” who has 1% more support than Jones. Disappointing. Rasmussen had a duty to name Labno in the interest of fairness to all parties, to ensure more accurate reporting by the media
Rasmussen is officially blacklisted by me until they start including everyone’s name in their polls. There’s no excuse for their behavior. “Rasmussen” is also a banned word in comments right now, so if you want to talk about them use: “The polling company that shall not be named” in comments or your post will be held automatically for moderation.
U.S. Senate candidate Mark Kirk (R-10th), of Highland Park, listed country, pop and jazz - from Taylor Swift’s “Love Story” to Tom Petty’s “I Won’t Back Down” to Big & Rich’s “Save a Horse, Ride a Cowboy.”
*** UPDATE 1 *** Gun control group Brady PAC Illinois is doing an initial round of 65,000 robocalls with the following message…
“My husband, JIM Brady, is from Illinois,” Sarah Brady says in the call. “We’ve voted Republican many times, but we think BILL Brady’s gun policies are awful.”
[ *** End Of Update *** ]
* Personal PAC has a powerful new ad featuring a rape victim. The ad is running on cable TV in the Elgin area. The group is holding a fundraiser later this month to raise money to put the spot and three others on the air throughout the Chicago region. Rate it…
Script…
Jennie: When I was 18, I was raped. I don’t know what I would have done if I had become pregnant.
Narrator: As governor, Bill Brady would seek to outlaw abortion, and Brady opposes any exceptions, even for victims of rape and incest.
Jennie: Forcing a rape victim to carry a pregnancy is unthinkable, and scares me to death.
Narrator: The more you learn about Bill Brady, the worse it gets. We deserve better than Bill Brady.
* Alexi Giannoulias has a new TV ad that, once again, calls Mark Kirk a liar and a George Bush guy. Watch…
* “Vote No Kilbride” has a new radio ad blasting the Supreme Court Chief Justice. Listen…
*** UPDATE 2 *** Kilbride’s campaign responds…
Kilbride actually voted in support of the state’s position in one of the cases. Together with the Supreme Court’s majority, Kilbride voted to support a harsher sentence against the defendant in this case. The case is People ex rel. Waller v. McKoski. […]
In the Waller decision that JustPac skewered in the radio ad, Tom Kilbride wrote a concurrence opinion arguing the Supreme Court should issue its order through a supervisory order rather than through a mandamus writ - a purely procedural distinction that did not interfere with his support for the harsher penalty.
JustPac’s pretend criminals also flubbed explanations of the other two specified cases. In People v. Bannister, Kilbride questioned the wisdom of allowing testimony from a convicted murderer in a 13-year-old case. This convicted murderer was given a plea agreement vacating his two murder convictions and reducing his sentence in order to get his testimony. And in People v. Runge, Kilbride and Justice Charles Freeman joined a dissent authored by Justice Anne Burke. In this dissent, Burke argued a juror who cheered out loud for the prosecution in a capital case should have been excluded.
[ *** End Of Update 2 *** ]
* Justice Kilbride’s campaign has two new ads. Here’s one…
Independent candidate for governor Scott Lee Cohen lost his temper with the media during a campaign appearance Wednesday morning.
Cohen was angry because a reporter asked whether his plan to create more jobs could take 10 or 15 years.
“You know, I am so sick and tired of the negativity by the media. Do you see anybody that has a better plan? Do you? Do you see anybody out there trying to put the people back to work? You know, that’s enough, I’ve had enough, thank you very much for coming,” Cohen said.
With that Cohen walked away from the podium. He later came back to say what made him angry was a negative Associated Press story about his Rockford job fair Tuesday - a story that quoted attendees who said it was more like a campaign event.
“We’re down about 60,000 registered voters from where we were two years ago,” said Chicago Election Board Chairman Langdon Neal. […]
“We did a major canvass in which we verify our rolls to make sure they’re clean this summer,” Neal said. “So, we’ve cleaned the rolls so that our voting rolls are very accurate in terms of eligible voters, so that results in some loss of voters.” […]
Outside of Chicago there has been a spike in registration compared to 2006. In each of the collar counties, the numbers of registered voters is up: in DuPage, Will, Lake, Kane and McHenry counties the increase totals almost 110,000 new voters.
* The Question: How big of a GOP wave are you predicting for this year? Quantify it, please and explain.
* During his Sun-Times editorial board interview this week, Bill Brady was asked about his lack of union support. He quickly pointed to his endorsement by the Fraternal Order of Police. Brady was then asked if he would support applying the same two-tiered pension system to police and firefighters that he supported for state workers and teachers. He didn’t answer directly, saying, rightly, that there are different issues with public safety folks on things like retirement age (although teachers and some others can make the same sort of claims).
[Brady] said as recently as the first gubernatorial debate on September 29 that he would not be cutting anything other than self-identified “waste” from public safety departments–a far cry from the “dime on every dollar” cuts he has proposed for other areas of government. […]
[FOP president Ted Street] said Brady assured union leaders at a private meeting in July that they would be at the table when cuts are made: a move he said “has never been done before.”
“Senator Brady has reached out and asked that I facilitate a meeting between State Troopers lodge (of the union)…and the Department of Corrections lodge…to come up with and organize cost-cutting measures,” Street said. “Senator Brady has offered us input, a voice of representation in the decision making process.”
Brady blasted Quinn for a deal the governor negotiated with the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees union shortly after the group endorsed him. The deal will prevent the state from laying off workers in exchange for furlough days, wage freezes and cost-cutting measures, identified by the union itself. […]
But he now finds himself accusing Quinn of selling out the people of Illinois for his suspect deals with political supporters, while negotiating a similar one on a signature issue. His two pronged attack now appears double edged.
Once you bring up a quid pro quo with your opponent’s endorsers, you subject yourself to similar scrutiny. It’s a fair hit.
* Meanwhile, the SJ-R took a look at the agreement between AFSCME and Gov. Pat Quinn’s administration and discovered that while it sets a $100 million budget reduction goal, it specifies just $10 million in immediate cuts…
The immediate $10 million in savings will be met by “reduction in the use of overtime, expansion of the voluntary furlough program and by in-sourcing work that can be provided more economically if performed by state employees,” according to the agreement
A total of $50 million must be found by the end of this month.
Gov. Pat Quinn blasted Republican challenger Bill Brady today for leaving open the option of borrowing $50 billion to shore up state pension funds, saying it would lead to a massive tax increase.
Quinn seized on the issue in an attempt to turn the tables on Brady, who has hammered the Democratic governor for pushing an income tax increase and borrowing money.
Brady, a state senator from Bloomington, has refused to rule out a $50 billion pension loan. He has said all options should be on the table when it comes to ensuring the health of the underfunded retirement systems. The Brady campaign said it is not backing the idea, saying it would be an option only as part of a comprehensive package that could save the state money.
Quinn brushed aside such nuances, saying a $50 billion pension bond “will never happen as long as I’m governor.”
Gov. Pat Quinn is defending spending $50 million on a new initiative aimed at helping to rebuild struggling neighborhoods while the state has unpaid bills piling up.
The governor’s office says the new anti-violence initiative is a mix of federal money and state money that lawmakers gave Quinn discretion to spend.
It’s the second time in two weeks Quinn has announced he’ll spend some of that money.
The Chicago Democrat recently announced he would use $75 million to keep a temporary jobs program going while Illinois waits for Congress to approve more money for it.
Nonprofit organizations that serve some of the nation’s most vulnerable citizens have been forced to freeze salaries, dip into cash reserves and cut programs because government funding is shrinking and often late in coming, according to a report released Thursday by the Urban Institute.
And human service nonprofits in Illinois have been among the hardest hit.
Nationally, 41 percent of human service nonprofits reported late payments from state, federal and local government sources in 2009, the survey found. In Illinois, that number reached 72 percent, highest in the nation.
Despite Gov. Pat Quinn’s call for cost-cutting throughout state government, at least two state agencies are planning to buy or lease new vehicles this month.
Illinois Is Broke, an organization pretty much put together by the Civic Committee of the Commercial Club, this week began spending what I’m told is in the low-to-mid six figures on radio and print ads urging voters to “ask the candidates what they will do: fix the pensions, or just raise taxes?”
The radio version of the spot has a mother gently griping that, “Our family has to live within our means, but Illinois state government doesn’t.”
The ad then goes on to talk about “free health insurance” for state retirees and a state debt amounting to $25,000 per family.”
The spot doesn’t name any names, but it should be mildly helpful to GOP gubernatorial nominee Bill Brady — a Republican, like the bulk of those who paid for the ad are believed to be. But neither he nor Democratic incumbent Pat Quinn has been specific on what they’d do to close a hole of at least $75 billion.
* Related…
* Obama comes home for Alexi; to help Quinn: Quinn campaign spokesman Mica Matsoff told me that Obama cut a radio spot for Quinn — to start Monday — where he says he will be voting for Quinn on Nov. 2 and urging others to cast their ballot for Quinn… White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs said Wednesday during a briefing that Obama will be greeting Quinn when he lands at O’Hare. Matsoff said Quinn will be bringing two people who benefitted from his “Illinois to Work” jobs program to the tarmac to meet with Obama. While the Obama ad for Quinn starts Monday, on Wednesday, Vice President Joe Biden joins Quinn in Chicago for a ‘’Putting Illinois Back to Work'’ get-out-the-vote rally at the Chicago Journeymen Plumbers Local 130 Hall on the near West Side.
* Teachers endorsement means donations, volunteers: For candidate Pat Quinn, Wednesday was like walking into a room filled with money. The governor and his running mate, Sheila Simon, can expect six-figured campaign donations from the 103,000 member teachers’ union.
* Brady brings GOP bid for governor to Alton: “We’re going to clean house in Springfield,” Brady said. “We’re going to get rid of all the political patronage bureaucrats, and we’re going to bring in real professionals to run Springfield for your benefit and not their personal interests.”
* Brady, Schilling rally with supporters in Quincy, Pittsfield: “It’s you who are going to decide the future of this state, not the special interests,” Brady said, flanked by his wife, Nancy and running mate, Jason Plummer.
Most suburbs examined experienced more than 50 percent increases in the number of poor from 2000 to 2008. In Aurora, the number jumped nearly 62 percent to 19,479, and in Joliet, it rose 39.5 percent to 15,266. […]
“Poverty rose in almost every Chicago suburban community that we looked at,” said Scott Allard, study co-author and associate professor in the U. of C. School of Social Service Administration. “More recent data would show that these trends have only continued.”
But few suburban communities have a social services infrastructure in place to address the challenges of increased poverty, he noted. In Cicero, there are 3,648 poor people per social service non-profit, the study revealed. In Carpentersville, there are 3,013 for every nonprofit, in Aurora, 1,299 for every one and in Skokie, 1,274 for every one.
Bamani Obadele, 37, stepped down as a deputy director of the Illinois Department of Children and Family Services in 2005 after an internal investigation found he had profited from state contracts.
In pleading guilty Tuesday to one count of mail fraud in federal court in Chicago, Obadele admitted he had DCFS vendors buy tote bags, magnets and other items from a promotional company he secretly owned. He also directed DCFS contractors to subcontract work to a company in which he held a board seat.
Many of Huberman’s signature initiatives are still unrealized. The district is in the midst of creating a new teacher evaluation, implementing a $40 million anti-violence initiative, and trying out Huberman’s favored performance management system, which attaches performance metrics to everything from transportation to teaching.
The protesters at Whittier Elementary School should not be made to suffer while staying in the building at 1900 W. 23rd St., said Ald. Daniel Solis, 25th. The parents on the site want another assessment of the building, which they have occupied since mid-September.
“But in the meantime, the Board of Education cannot make a very dumb mistake, in my (opinion), of turning off the gas because the issue of safety comes up again,” Solis said.
Twenty-three-year-old Daniel Johnson was a newlywed. He got married just four months ago.
Johnson died Tuesday as he tried to deactivate a bomb near Kandahar, Afghanistan when an improvised explosive detonated, injuring the sergeant and killing Johnson. He lived in northwest suburban Schiller Park before moving to California.
He had one of the toughest assignments in the military - explosive ordinance disposal - commonly known as the bomb squad. Every job is literally a life or death operation. But his family says he loved it.
* This is a self-made video that’s already running on TV in Champaign. It’s going up around the state starting this weekend, the Pat Quinn campaign says. I think it’s one of the better ads of the season…
* I was pretty tough on Democratic Congressman Phil Hare’s latest TV ad yesterday. He had it coming. But Hare now has a new ad up that whacks Schilling for not paying taxes while alleging that Schilling wants to raise payroll taxes. Rate it…
The payroll taxes hit comes from a Chicago Tribune questionnaire that Schilling’s son says he filled out and “misphrased”…
…Schilling responded to a question about the solvency of Medicare and Social Security by saying, “I believe that there will need to be an increase in Medicare and Social Security withholding taxes.”
The “not paying taxes” hit is about Schilling twice not paying his annual business franchise tax to the Secretary of State. Schilling’s corporation was officially dissolved both times. Click here for the documentation. This is a pretty minor offense, but Debbie Halvorson was hit with the same thing two years ago by Republican Marty Ozinga.
POLITICO has learned that the National Republican Congressional Committee will take a bank loan of at least $6.5 million – but likely more—to expand its ad buys into seven additional districts beyond the 55 where the committee has already reserved time.
According to an NRCC source familiar with the effort, the newly-added targets include five Democrats whose districts until recently were thought to be out of reach this year: Minnesota Rep. Tim Walz, Georgia Rep. Sanford Bishop, Illinois Rep. Phil Hare, and Ohio Rep. Zack Space, and Colorado Rep. John Salazar.
A recent poll by Public Opinion Strategies of 400 likely voters, conducted on September 26 and 27, with a margin of error of 4.9 percent shows Schilling and Hare tied at 37-38 percent. Schilling leads Hare by 18 points among voters who have heard of both candidates, and by 29 points among voters who have an opinion of both candidates. Pollster Glen Bolger said of this poll “Incumbent Phil Hare has real problems with the electorate in this district. Voters are upset at the direction of the country. Hare’s image is underwhelming. Incumbents at 38% on the ballot test don’t win unless they are successful at burning down their opponent.”
* Rahm Emanuel has been asking Twitter denizens to send him questions, comments, etc. via the #TellItLikeItIs hashtag. It’s apparently part of his “listening tour.” He’s calling the Tweets and responses a “data driven effort” to find out what’s on everybody’s minds. OK. Whatever.
So, how about telling us who you’re supporting for county assessor? That might tell us a lot.
Our longtime commenter and blogger’s blogger OneMan followed up…
I too am curious who you are supporting in the assessors race..
No response. Actually, there aren’t many real responses. Nobody’s asking many serious questions. So if you have a Twitter account, click here, if you dare, and pose a question to Rahm using the #tellitlikeitis hashtag in your question. Maybe he’ll even answer. Report back if you sent him a question and if whoever is running that Twitter account actually talks back.
A new report claims Chicago has the most dangerous neighborhood in America, although the neighborhood in question is not particularly infamous for crime.
The report by geographer Dr. Andrew Schiller for the commercial real estate site NeighborhoodScout.com said a neighborhood identified as “W. Lake St.,” located on the Near West Side and bounded by Kinzie Street on the north, Washington Boulevard on the south, Damen Avenue on the east and Western Avenue on the west, is the most dangerous neighborhood in the country.
The report claims that the chances of being a victim of a violent crime in the neighborhood are 1 in 4. It says the neighborhood sees 257.72 crimes per 1,000 residents.
But official police statistics seem to show a different story. The “neighborhood” named the most dangerous in the report corresponds directly to Census Tract 280500, which ranks toward the middle for crime among city neighborhoods.
So, the supposedly most dangerous neighborhood in the country isn’t even close to the most dangerous neighborhood in Chicago? Somebody’s “data driven effort” just failed.
* Meanwhile, Rev. Sen. James Meeks continues his own listening tour by actually sitting down and talking with real, live human beings…
In a move sure to surprise many people, but one that also signals just how serious he is about running for mayor of Chicago, Ill. state Sen. James Meeks (D-Chicago) traveled to Boystown Oct. 5 to meet with several LGBT leaders at the offices of Equality Illinois. […]
“One of the things I was asked was if I would keep the office of the mayor’s liaison to the LGBT community and the Chicago Gay and Lesbian Hall of Fame,” Meeks said. “I was very surprised that people would think that I would do away with that office or the Hall. It’s very important to me and the city, and I would definitely keep that.”
Meeks also said he told the leaders that he would support efforts to lessen bullying against LGBT students in schools. Education has been an issue that Meeks has focused on as a legislator – he threatened to run against former Gov. Rod Blagojevich in 2006 over education funding and has pushed comprehensive legislation to revamp the state’s tax system in order to fully fund public schools.
I think I much prefer the old school social networking to the “data driven effort.”
An upcoming debate between Illinois candidates for U.S. Senate has been canceled, as organizers say Democratic candidate Alexi Giannoulias has turned down a request to participate.
The debate, originally scheduled for Oct. 21 at the WSIU broadcasting studios in Carbondale and co-sponsored by The Southern Illinoisan, was meant to include senatorial candidates from all three of Illinois’ legally established political parties, but Giannoulias’ withdrawal caused organizers to cancel the event.
David Yepsen, of SIUC’s Paul Simon Public Policy Institute, said the Giannoulias campaign refused to participate in the debate because the Libertarian candidate for U.S. Senate, Michael Labno, was not allowed to join the discussion.
“It’s disappointing, but these things happen in politics,” Yepsen said. “The rules we put together were that we would invite any candidate of an established political party. We’re not going to change the rules for one candidate.”
I wonder if Team Giannoulias has forgotten a lesson that former Sen. Carol Moseley-Braun learned the hard way the year she lost her re-election bid: Downstate still counts, and Downstaters don’t like to be ignored.
* Carol Marin takes off after GOP lt. governor nominee Jason Plummer for his new answer to a question he’s been dodging for months: His refusal to release tax returns, as every gubernatorial and (almost every) lt. gubernatorial candidate for decades has done…
“I’m coming from the private sector,” answered Plummer. “I didn’t serve in the public sector last year.”
I fully agree with Carol’s next line: “Huh?”
Marin continues…
But even former Gov. George Ryan, now in prison, and Rod Blagojevich, who’s heading there, disclosed their income taxes.
And as Sun-Times Springfield Bureau Chief Dave McKinney pointed out to Plummer, Blagojevich’s tax forms provided the public with the first clue that convicted influence peddler Tony Rezko was paying Patti Blagojevich.
That was an excellent point by McKinney. It blows away Plummer’s argument that all we need to know is in his Statement of Economic Interests report filed with the state. And that argument doesn’t hold much water, either…
“That’s the most incomprehensible, terrible, convoluted form known to man,” scoffed Dennis Czurylo, a former supervisor for the IRS Criminal Investigation Division who has put many a politician in jail. “Government purposely uses these obscure and useless forms,” he said, because they “don’t disclose what a federal tax form does,” things like debt and land trusts.
And here’s another new argument that I haven’t seen before…
Plummer didn’t mask his exasperation, telling the Sun-Times, “When we’re elected on Nov. 2, I’ll be more than happy to use . . . your interest in my tax return as leverage to force a lot of folks in Springfield to show their tax returns.”
“It’s not too much to expect from a candidate for statewide office [that] their priority would be statewide office and representing the people of Illinois rather than protecting their family’s business interest,” said Simon, whose late father, U.S. Sen. Paul Simon, would divulge tax records that showed how much income she made as a teen-age babysitter and how much her adolescent brother made from his paper route.
“It says his priorities are different than mine and the governor,” Simon said of Plummer. “We’ve disclosed this without being asked and disclosed it fully.”
GOP gubernatorial hopeful Bill Brady said Tuesday he would not stand in the way of a public school board should it want to teach creationism.
“I believe knowledge is power, and I believe local school districts should establish the curriculum when it comes to those things,” Brady told the Chicago Sun-Times editorial board in a wide-ranging interview session with running mate Jason Plummer.
This is not really new news. He’s said it before. You can watch the entire Sun-Times editorial board endorsement session if you’d like…
* Question: Do you agree with Brady that it ought to be OK with the state if a local school district decides not to teach evolution and substitutes it with creationism? Explain.
* Bonus Question: Do you think this will make much difference in the campaign? Explain.
If you’re going to answer the bonus question, please make sure to answer the actual question, first. Thanks.
* John Kass writes again today about a forensic audit. He’s talking about Chicago, but the idea is part of Bill Brady’s gubernatorial campaign platform as well. Brady uses the proposal to deflect questions about his budget details, saying he needs to see the results of such an intense audit before he can make any decisions.
Now, I am not opposed to the idea at all, but here’s the thing: A normal Auditor General agency audit takes months to complete. A complicated and detailed forensic audit of the entire state government all at once might take years. Whatever the case, there’s just no way I can figure that Brady could launch a complete forensic audit after he’s inaugurated in January and get the results back before introducing a new state budget in March or April, or even May or June.
New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, a rising star in the Republican Party, says state Sen. Bill Brady should not offer too many details about how he would cut Illinois’ $13 billion budget deficit if Brady is elected governor.
Christie, who endorsed fellow Republican Brady at Abraham Lincoln Capital Airport Tuesday, said Brady shouldn’t worry about criticism that his budget plan lacks specifics.
“I heard the same things … a year ago right now,” Christie told reporters. “What I said was, ‘I am laying out for the people of New Jersey the direction that I’m going take the state. And I’m not going to sit here now and talk about each and every specific cut and how it all adds up as if I’m a CPA.’
“Candidly, I’m really happy I didn’t. Because the problem I found in New Jersey was much worse than my predecessor advertised, and anything I would have said would have had to have been thrown right in the garbage in January 2010.”
Illinois capital-markets director John Sinsheimer and Citigroup Inc. bankers took a globe-girdling trip from the U.K. to China in June to persuade investors that the state’s $900 million of Build America Bonds were a bargain.
The seven-country visit worked. The state sold one-fifth of the federally subsidized securities abroad the next month, tapping investors who are the fastest-growing source of borrowed cash for U.S. municipalities. Illinois, with the lowest credit rating of any state from Moody’s Investors Service, dangled yields higher than Mexico, which defaulted on debt in 1982, and Portugal, which costs more to insure against missed payments.
To retire the fiscal 2010 bills by the end of the year, [Comptroller Dan Hynes] warned that the state must complete its up to $1.75 billion tobacco bond sale because the budget relies on at least $1.2 billion from the deal. Illinois recently named a finance team for the transaction. The state also must make additional interfund transfers and collect additional revenue from a tax amnesty program.
“A significant failure of any of these sources will place remaining fiscal year 2010 obligations in jeopardy,” Hynes warned. “This would create a scenario in which unsatisfied payees could be forced to seek legal and judicial remedies to obtain payments in amounts unprecedented in the state’s history.”
The comptroller said barring any major changes, the state’s liquidity crisis will continue through the fiscal year and Illinois could end the year with an even larger bill backlog of $8 billion as additional debt service comes due. That number could rise if no action is taken to address a $3.7 billion pension payment. […]
However, Hynes warned: “The structural imbalance in the current budget, combined with higher debt service costs and the loss of federal stimulus revenues, creates the very real possibility that the governor and General Assembly will face a working deficit of $15 billion or more when the fiscal year 2012 budget is crafted early next year.”
Republican governor candidate Bill Brady has been blasting Democratic Gov. Pat Quinn for taxing, spending and borrowing, but Tuesday the challenger refused to rule out borrowing a record $50 billion to shore up state finances.
“All options have to be considered,” Brady said.
Yeah. That’ll be no problem, considering the inflated interest rate, the ever-worsening deficit and still-horrible revenues.
Nobody is gonna buy that many bonds from this state without a definable revenue stream. Brady has said he’d pay them off with “natural revenue growth.” As I pointed out yesterday, there is no revenue growth.
Gov. Pat Quinn’s administration has finalized a deal with the state’s largest employee union that will prevent layoffs until 2012 despite repeated calls from Republican challenger Bill Brady for Quinn to abandon the plan.
The agreement between the state and the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees was finalized on Sep. 24, and was signed by union director Henry Bayer and James Sledge, head of Illinois Central Management Services.
Under the deal, the state cannot layoff workers or close facilities until July 2012. In exchange the union says it has agreed to cut costs by at least $170 million by cutting healthcare costs, restricting overtime and other yet-to-be-identified measures. Quinn’s office hopes ongoing negotiations will push savings higher.
Too often, this governor walks right into the punches.
Martina Love had two words to describe the job fair hosted Tuesday by Scott Lee Cohen, the independent candidate for Illinois governor: “false advertisement.”
Out of work for a year, the 23-year-old said she’s looking for a “real job” at a factory or somewhere else, not selling jewelry or enlisting in the military like recruiters at Cohen’s Rockford-area job fair were offering.
“If he’s supposed to be a governor, I would think that he would have had more things in here knowing how the economy is,” said Love, who used to work at phone customer service company.
The job fairs are a cornerstone of Cohen’s campaign for governor, but the job seekers who lined up Tuesday to talk to more than a dozen companies weren’t necessarily interested in helping him gain employment as Illinois’s chief executive.
* As I told subscribers this morning, The Hill has a new poll showing the 11th Congressional District race isn’t even close. Congresswoman Debbie Halvorson is getting blown out by Republican Adam Kinzinger…
Right now, the outlook for Halvorson appears grim. The Hill/ANGA poll found she trails Kinzinger by 18 points — 49 percent to 31. Another 18 percent of likely voters remain undecided.
Kinzinger also leads among most major demographic groups. He’s ahead by 26 points among male voters and by 11 percent among females, and leads in all age groups by 10 points or more. Kinzinger also holds a wide lead with independent voters — 53 percent to 24.
All this threatens to occur over a critical set of months, when CPS traditionally devises its budget, prepares for state tests and decides which schools to close. It must tackle the tasks with an administrative staff decimated by budget cuts, teachers left disgruntled by cost-saving layoffs and the specter of even worse budget woes next school year.
He said he would likely stay through January, when a new school year begins for some CPS students. He said any time there is a transition in leadership, there is some consideration of who else will leave, but speculation he will leave soon is untrue.
Calling threats of a $300 million deficit in the upcoming 2011 budget a “fallacy and “scare tactics, Riverside Republican Commissioner Tony Peraica called for the full rollback Tuesday of the sales tax, which the county board reduced by half this summer.
A real estate advising company says a neighborhood bordered by Damen and Western Avenues on the east and west and Kinzie Street and Washington Boulevard to the north and south has the highest predicted rates of violent crime in the nation.
* Many of you who read this blog run the campaigns, walk the precincts, make the calls, coordinate the schedules, dig the dirt or dish it, deal with goofy candidates, or are a candidate yourself. I’d like to take this opportunity to say my hat is off to you.
The election is less than four weeks away, but you’re certainly weary from the never-ending days and nights. You’ve no doubt been busting your hump for weeks or months on end. Living on coffee, cigarettes, cold pizza and warm beer. Your candidate may be behind, or maybe you’re in a close race and fighting for what feels like your very life.
For the hacks in the streets, it’s starting to get chilly outside. Soon, it’ll be downright cold, which will be murder on your frozen knuckles (Hint: Kick the door, don’t knock, it’ll save those knuckles). You’ve probably been chased by a dog at least once by now. You may even have been bitten (try to remember to carry dog biscuits in your coat pocket). Some idiot has undoubtedly pulled up half the yard signs you placed the last time you were there. Stay calm. They can make more signs.
You may be losing your patience and your voice, but you can smell something familiar in the air: “The end.” People are finally paying attention and you’ve been feeling that ol’ adrenaline rush. You’re gonna need it. It’s the only thing that’ll keep you going through the miserable days ahead.
No matter. You press on. You may not even like your candidate, but it’s always ever onward. Sometimes - maybe more often than you might care to admit - you don’t even know why you’re pushing yourself so freaking hard. Campaigns are never easy, always unpredictable, maddeningly emotional, completely exhausting. Worse yet, nobody on the outside really understands your choice. Some even disrespect you for it. But it’s what you do, and, God help you, you love it.
You live a zero-sum life. You win or go home. There’s no silver medal. And the rewards aren’t all that great unless you are one of the chosen few. For everyone else, it’s just more work. Always, more work. But that rush you get when you win beats the heck out of trading in your way of life for some mundane sideline existence. You can’t just be someone who wouldn’t bother to invest their own sweat in this insanely bizarre American process.
So, whoever you are and whichever campaign you’re working for or with, this video is for you…
